Wednesday, April 28, 2021

The ubiquitous steam tram

 

A few weeks ago, I mused about the possibilities for motorising an Atlas steam tram model. Within minutes, there were comments pointing me in the direction of write-ups showing how to achieve this. 

To cap it all, through the door comes 009 News, and there is a tram on the front cover! 

 It seems that I'm far from alone in seeing the possibilities. In fact I wonder if there is a single 009 layout not running one! 

This all goes to show that no matter how long you spend around model railways, it's simply not possible to know everything there is about this great hobby. 

Thanks very much to all those who provided suggestions. One day, I will give them a go - or should I try to be different? Clockwork anyone?


1 comment:

Simon Hargraves said...

I don't think it is all that ubiquitous to be honest...while I've seen reference to the Atlas loco and trailer on several Facebook groups, I wonder how many of them have been bought, looked at, then put back in the box. While they're an attractive prospect, some of the attempts I've seen at conversion have been a bit half-hearted, resulting in the skirt of the loco sitting quite high above track level. It's certainly not an effortless thing to do in the way that buying a 3D print, painting it and clipping a Kato chassis underneath would be. I've been looking at my trailers and thinking the balcony is a bit long...I'd be inclined to shorten it and the roof, put smaller bogies on and get rid of the wobbly plastic railings, the vehicle would then be more in keeping with some of the other 009 coaches I've got. I'd certainly like to make it look a bit less continental...on the other hand, perhaps one and a half saloons could be bashed into something like the Plynlimon and Hafan coach...
Simon